Excavations for buildings normally must be shored so that the sidewalls of the excavation do not cave in during construction of permanent load-bearing walls. One method for shoring the sidewalls of the excavation is to use soil nailing techniques. In the past, soil nailing techniques have utilized steel anchor rods that are inserted in holes drilled into the sidewall of the excavation. The holes are placed several feet apart in both the horizontal and vertical directions. These holes are then filled with a cementitious material such as grout that surrounds the steel anchor rod. A shoring wall is then formed, for example, by shot construction, against the side of the excavation and tied to the steel anchor rods and cementitious filler material. Normally, these shoring walls are built in four-foot to six-foot high increments as the excavation is dug deeper. The permanent load-bearing walls are then normally built from the bottom up on the inside of the shoring walls.
Almost always reinforcing rods and the surrounding concrete grout extend into rights-of-way adjacent to the building construction site. It is desirable to be able to excavate in these rights of way after the original building is finished. In many instances, is desirable to excavate these adjacent rights-of-way or property. It is difficult to do so and very hard on excavating equipment when the steel rods are left in place. Thus, the steel rods are normally removed through the permanent load-bearing wall after it is completed. In order to do this, however, a hole must be left in the permanent wall. After the steel rods are removed through the hole, the hole must be patched with concrete and the resulting wall fully water sealed. This process leads to significant extra expense as well as complications in assuring waterproofing of the below ground load-bearing walls.